Fox, FIFA talked about effects of 2022 date shift

NEW YORK (AP) — A Fox Sports executive says the company has talked to FIFA about the ramifications of possibly shifting the dates of the 2022 World Cup.

Fox Sports President Eric Shanks declined to discuss Monday whether the network has protections in its rights deal should the tournament calendar change. If the 2022 World Cup is moved from the summer to the fall or early winter because of the dangers of the heat in host nation Qatar, the broadcasts on Fox would go up against the hugely popular NFL and college football.

“It’s definitely different. You go into buying a World Cup and you believe it’s going to be in the same time frame it’s always been,” Shanks said after Fox announced its new Major League Soccer deal. “Clearly in America there’s much more competition for ratings points.”

Fox paid $425 million in 2011 for the U.S. rights to the 2018 and ’22 World Cups.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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